Transcript
Willie “The Lion” Smith
Willie Smith was born Henry Joseph Bonaparte Bertholoff on November 25, 1897 in Goshen New York. Son of Frank Bertholoff and Ida Oliver.
Raised in Newark New Jersey.
Goshen Newark
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Willie was a pianist who stood at the center of the New
York City jazz world during the 1920s.
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Willie’s Finger Buster
He performed at the most fashionable
nightclubs in New York City’s African-
American Harlem neighborhood. He also
accompanied other musicians on
recordings, while inspiring and
mentoring younger musicians.
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He is known as a pioneer of stride piano, which was the first important solo piano style in the
jazz tradition.
Stride piano is a style of jazz piano playing in which the right hand plays the melody while the left hand plays a single bass note or octave on the strong beat
and a chord on the weak beat.
IMORTANT!
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/stride+piano?s=t
He is less well known than the other pianists of the 1920s such as James P. Johnson and Thomas P. “Fats” Waller. This was only
because he made few recordings under his own name until later in his career.
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Charleston
James P. Johnson
Thomas P. “Fats” Waller
Smith’s musical life began when he found an organ missing half its keys in the basement of the family home, and began trying to imitate the music he heard his mother play in church.
At this time he was about 6.
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His Uncle Rob gave him some pointers, and he began hearing ragtime hits from Scott Joplin’s
“Maple Leaf Rag” and George Botsford’s “Black and White Rag.”
Maple Leaf Rag
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Ragtime
Ragtime piano is rhythm in which the accompaniment is strict two-four time and the melody, with improvised embellishments, is in steady syncopation.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ragtime
In search of bigger things Smith moved to Atlantic City, New Jersey. He heard ragtime
pianist Eubie Blake, and it wasn’t long before he was making trips into New York City to hear
other piano players.
Eubie Blake
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His career was interrupted when he was enlisted in the U.S. army in 1916 and became an
artillery gunner. His unit was sent to France where he dodged poison-gas canisters and
inspired an officer to say, “Smith, you’re a lion with that gun.” And from there on he was
known as Willie “The Lion” Smith.
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After his war duties were over he
landed a job at a Harlem’s sharpest club, Leroy’s. He
would play solo or be accompanied, and on any given night some of the top performers, Bill “Bojangles”
Robinson or Bert Williams would
show up. http://www.musicianguide.com/biographies/1608004818/Willie-the-Lion-Smith.html
Bojangles
Bert Williams
Smith’s 78 rpm record that Mamie Smith and himself made,
“Crazy Blues,” is generally regarded
as the first blues recording. It became
a bestseller and started a decade-
long trend in blues vocal recordings by
women.
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Crazy Blues
Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington was a pianist
who looked up to Willie. He later wrote
the introduction to Willie’s memoirs.
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Ellington declared that:“the Lion has been the greatest
influence on most of the great piano players who have been exposed to his fire, harmonic lavishness, his stride–what a luxury. Fats Waller, James P. Johnson, Count Basie, Donald Lambert, Joe Turner, Sam Ervis and of course I swam in it. Even the great Art Tatum showed strong patterns of Willie Smithisms after being exposed to the Lion”
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Count Basie
Donald Lambert
JoeTurner
Art Tatum
New jazz trends had overshadowed Smith’s status as a top jazz attraction. He had an
interest in classical music and took classical piano and theory lessons from a German immigrant, Hans Steinke, in the 1930s.
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He began to write short, classical-influenced original compositions, to which he turned when he finally got the chance to record.
After making some small-band records with a group he called Willie the Lion Smith and His Cubs in 1935, he was signed to the Commodore label and in 1939 released the
group of sides for which he was best known.
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Several were Smith originals, with names like "Passionette" and "Echoes of Spring"--little tone poems on the piano that mixed jazz elements with classical harmonies.
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His solo recordings from 1939 are often
reckoned to be his finest work, but he
went on making discs well into the 1960s and beyond, some of them
including his own spoken comments and
repartee, as he demonstrated his
playing at the keyboard.
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His fame spread when Artie Shaw and Tommy Dorsey
performed arrangements of his compositions. Smith
toured Europe in 1949 and again in the mid '60s; appeared in the
film Jazz Dance in 1954 and wrote his memoirs, Music On
My Mind in '65.
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Willie “The Lion” Smith lived through six decades of music and, despite the changes in
musical styles over those years; he remained true to himself and his own style.
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He recorded a final album in Paris in June 1972 and played right up until his death in April
1973. Today, his spirit and his legacy still live on through his music.
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Sources Cited"All About Jazz." musicians.allaboutjazz. All About Jazz, 25 Nov 2010. Web. 2 Aug
2013. <http://musicians.allaboutjazz.com/musician.php?id=4460
"Dictionary.com." Dictionary.reference. Dictionary.com. Web. 2 Aug 2013. http://dictionary.reference.com/
Hoefer, George. "Willie the Lion Smith Biography." musicianguide.com. Net Industries, n.d. Web. 24 Jul 2013. http://www.musicianguide.com/biographies/1608004818/Willie-the-Lion-Smith.html
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